BEGINNER1. LESSON #22. LE DINER

Le diner :
- Vous voulez vous asseoir ? Vous aimez la salade de tomate ?
- Oui, et j’ai faim.
- Voici le plat. Ensuite : Bœuf bourguignon. Vous mangez du bœuf ?
- Oui. Tu cuisines souvent ?
- J’adore cuisiner, surtout les desserts. Donnez vos verres, les enfants, je vous donne de l’eau. Jean, tu veux du vin rouge ?
TRANSLATION
At dinner :
- Do you want to sit down ? Do you like tomato salad ?
- Yes and I’m hungry.
- Here’s the dish. Next : Beef bourguignon. Do you eat beef ?
- Yes. Do you cook often ?
- I love cooking, especially desserts. Give your glasses, children, I give you some water. Jean, do you want some red wine ?
Vouloir : to want.
Salade (fém.) : salad.
Tomate (fém.) : tomato.
Faim : hungry.
Plat (masc.) : dish.
Bœuf bourguignon (masc.) : Bœuf bourguignon, beef bourguignon, beef Burgundy, bœuf à la bourguignonne.
Cuisiner : to cook.
Dessert (masc.) : dessert.
Verre : glass.
Eau (fém.) : water.
There are many interrogative sentences in this dialogue. But only casual interrogative ones because Marie and Jean are friends now.
Vous voulez vous asseoir ? Tu veux du vin rouge ?
You can notice that the only difference with the declarative phrase is the punctuation (the question-mark) and the raising of the pitch of the voice. That’s how real French speak most of the times (when situation allows it, of course).

To ask question in a formal (and more correct) way, we have other possibilities.
One of them is using inversion : we invert the verb and the subject pronoun. An hyphen join them.

Here is the dialogue of this lesson with this formal way of asking questions :
- Voulez-vous vous asseoir ? Aimez-vous la salade de tomates ?
- Oui, et j’ai faim.
- Voici le plat. Ensuite : Bœuf bourguignon. Mangez-vous du bœuf ?
- Oui. Cuisines-tu souvent ?
- J’adore cuisiner, surtout les desserts. Donnez vos verres, les enfants, je vous donne de l’eau. Jean, veux-tu du vin rouge ?

This way of asking questions is often the one we can find in written sentences. Both ways of asking questions have to be known but we’ll work on it later. For the moment, stick to the casual way.
Beef bourguignon is a traditional French recipe. It is a stew prepared with beef braised in red wine with vegetable like onions, carrots and mushrooms.
Translate in French :
1. Do you like chips ?
2. Do you want tomatoes ?
3. Do they cook often ?

Translate in English :
1. Vous mangez du citron ?
2. Vous aimez les desserts ?
3. Vous me donnez vos verres ?


What about you ? Do you cook often ?
Et vous ? Vous cuisinez souvent ?
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